and in the power of his might. Put on the whole the armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. So reads God's precious word. And now the last time we were studying here in chapter six of the book of the Epistles to the Ephesians, we majored on the thoughts that were brought to us in verse 12, that we live in this desperately wicked world that is controlled and orchestrated by Satan and the powers that he has at his disposal. Wickedness in high places, it says. We encouraged ourselves at the end of that study with the fact that we should be strong in the Lord and the power of his might and that we should put on the whole armour of God so that we might be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. And Paul now wants to take us on a little practical journey, in a way, to speak something about the various ways in which we can stand against this tremendous evil power that rules in this world at the moment. And perhaps we could imagine him there in his prison cell, looking around, wondering how he can explain this in a very practical way that we might understand the force of his message to us. There he is and he looks at a soldier, for he was probably chained to a soldier at that time. And he looks at this soldier and he sees the the various pieces of armor that this soldier is wearing. And Paul's mind turns to using those pieces of clothing, those pieces of armor, to describe to us how we might equip ourselves to do battle with the evil forces of the world in which we live. He chooses six items of clothing the soldier is wearing. indispensable items to that soldier as he goes into battle. He chooses the belt, the breastplate, the shoes, the shield, the helmet, and the sword. Then eventually, of course, he encourages us to pray. The prayer he emphasizes will be the completeness of the armor that is required to deal with the attacks of the evil one. So this evening we'll just look at the first two together, the belt and the breastplates. Verse 13, Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Verse 13, he reiterates the commands of verses 11 and 12. Finally, brethren, be strong in the Lord, in the power of His might, put on the whole armour of God. Then he comes down, as I say, to verse 13 and repeats that particular encouragement to us. Take unto you the whole armour of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day. And it's not only a command but it's a promise also. If we read that verse and we read it not just as a command but as a promise, there's tremendous encouragement in it for us. Put on the whole armour and we will be able not only to stand but to be victorious in our battle. Commentator Kent Hughes says this, he says, real armour wrought on the anvils of heaven, that will protect us in real war." Then he adds a little caveat which is very telling. He says, if only we will put it on. Just like that soldier, he could have gone into battle without putting his armour on and he would not have been able to withstand the ferocious onslaught of the battle. Paul makes the point here that we need to put on this armour if we are going to be successful. So this evening then, just the belt and the breastplate. So, verse 14, the first part says, Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth. Now, it doesn't actually say belt in our authorised version, but that is what the writer is thinking of here. The thought that Paul had here was, I think, that a Roman soldier would tighten his belt. He'd tighten his belt as he went into battle. And he'd do it for two reasons. First of all, it pulled up his tunic so as not to impede his charge into battle. They wore fairly long tunics. He then pulled the belt tight and tucked the tunic up into it so that it would not impede his progress. And then secondly, that belt would have been the belt that the sword was attached to, and so it firmly fixed his sword in place. So the thought of that belt there is that it held everything in place. And without it, he would have been powerless in battle. How important this belt was. It's indispensable to hold everything together for the Christian warrior. Fighting the powers of darkness is this belt, for it tells us that it's a belt of truth. And it's no surprise to us, is it, I'm sure, that the first item that Paul wants to put before us as being something which is so vital, so necessary to us, as we try to fight off the wiles of the evil one. We thought last week how desperate the battle is, how wily he is, how ferocious he is in his desire to finish us off as far as Christian life is concerned. And Paul says, the first thing that you need is this belt of truth. That's what you need. And that truth here that Paul is thinking about, I think, is that eternal biblical truth. It's so fundamental to everything of God's dealings with His people. Eternal biblical truth revealed in the Scriptures. We could turn to no better authority than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself to emphasize this point. For the Lord Jesus says, recorded in John chapter 8 and verse 32, And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. In John 17, verse 17, the Lord Jesus in that wonderful prayer says, sanctify them in truth. Then he goes on to add, your word is truth. Without such truth we don't have a chance in the spiritual battles which will surely come our way. Those of us who are older in the Christian faith know full well that we are assailed quite often with a battle to maintain the truth of Scripture, particularly, it seems, in the day in which we live. All of the following weapons that are listed here in these verses, all of them, if you think about it, will come clattering down if they were not tightly bound up with the truth of the Word of God. study the great spiritual warriors of the past. And it seems that they were all men and women who stood foursquare on the truth of the Word of God." The truth of the Word of God filled with victorious encouragements to these people to live the lives that they live and for us to live the lives that we live as Christians. All of these items bound up in truth. Luther, Wesley, both, it is said, memorized the entire Bible. and none were nor have been more effective Christian warriors bound body, soul and spirit to the Word of God." Paul is saying here the Word of God is the truth of God and that is what is going to enable us to add all these other facets to our Christian lives. It is the truth of the Word of God, first and foremost, that we should be concerning. It's not an easy thing. Nobody ever said it could be. It's difficult to memorize sections of Scripture. And the older we get, the more difficult it becomes to remember them, perhaps. But it is important, particularly when we are younger, to commit to our memory the words of Scripture. We never know when they might be useful to us, when we might have our Bibles taken away from us for some reason, might find ourselves in some circumstance where we need to read our Bibles and we don't have them with us, but if we've committed verses of Scripture to mind and memory, then it will enable us to survive in the Christian life. But, but, we must go a step further. As indeed did Luther and Wesley. For not only did they commit the scriptures to mind and memory, but in turn they committed it to their lives. They lived it out. Not sufficient just to have the head knowledge, to just learn it by rote, but to be able to show in our daily lives that we can put it into practice, this truth that we have in our hands in the Word of God. We need to develop, as encouraged by Paul, not only a knowledge of the truth, but a truthful character. And that doesn't come easily, as I've said already. Today's culture, The society that you and I live in has abandoned the common truth, let alone the truth of the Word of God. Our newspapers are full every day, are they not, with people who have perjured themselves in one way or another. And sadly, there is little shame in it these days. It's almost a badge of honor to have perjured oneself these days. and they're accepted back into society and carry on as though nothing has happened. There's no shame in it whatsoever. As I was thinking about this this week, I remembered that just, was it last week or the week before, one of our Members of Parliament was caught speeding. And she managed to get a friend or a husband, I can't remember which it was, doesn't matter, to take the rap for her, as we might say. She lied. She abandoned the truth. She was given a three-month sentence. She serves one month, and I think it was yesterday she was let out of prison. And today, she is back in the House of Commons, deciding on your future and my future. Somebody who has no regard, it seems, for truth, even in its commonest form, let alone the truth of the Word of God. We joke amongst ourselves, do we not? You must have heard it. When do we know that a politician is lying? And we all say gaily and laugh when he opens his mouth. It's not funny, is it? It really isn't. Who can you trust these days? They talk about alternative truth today. It's just been completely turned upon its head. Think about the advertising industry, riddled with institutional deceit. Their business is about deceiving you and I to believe the products that they are promoting will do what patently they can't do for us. Enough. But you know, before we start feeling very comfortable and sanctimonious, let's not forget that believers can fall into the same trap. Have you ever had a believer lie to you? consciously or maybe even unconsciously. But they subsequently refused to recant. What does Paul say in chapter 4 of the Ephesian epistle in verse 25? He says, Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. You know, it's a terrible thing to lie in the world in which we live. It's an even worse sin, I think, to lie to each other as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's funny how we remember little homilies that our parents or grandparents laid upon us when we were children. Doesn't seem to happen so much these days, I don't think, with children, but something I always remember my mother saying, she always used to say, you can get round a thief, but you cannot get round a liar, and she hated it if she caught any of us telling lies. The result of it all is spiritual impotence. If we persist in it, it's spiritual impotence. But of course it's the exact opposite for those who walk in truth. Objectively, we are cinched, if you like. Lovely word, that. Cinched, like the soldier's belt. It reminded me when I read that word and was thinking about it again this week. They do it to horses, don't they, when they put a saddle on, I believe. I'm probably on safe ground here tonight. I don't see any horse riders. If Margaret was here, I'd be a little more careful. But they put the saddle on and they put this surcingle, I think it's called, round the middle of the horse underneath and they cinch it up and they keep cinching it up. Why do they do that? To make sure the saddle stays on and to make sure the rider is kept safe. Objectively then, those of us who endeavour to walk in the truth, those of us who follow the Word of God, objectively we are cinched like that soldier's belt. thus binding the truth of God to us in a very real and personal way. But if that's subjectively, then subjectively the truth of God is worked out in our lives. Filled with God's truth, we should be living it out in our lives. We should be those who have a clear conscience. Paul would say when he was before Festus, I have a conscience which is clear. Not only before men, he says, but before God. Now you and I have clear consciences before God as far as our sin is concerned, but our daily lives we need to be continually confessing our sins to God. We need to have that clear conscience. That truth of God needs to be evident in our lives and needs to be the way in which we live them. filled with God's truth, living it out, clear consciences. Because if we live like that, we can face anything. Paul is very forthright here. He's making the point that if we have this truth of God in our lives, then we can face any difficulty, any foe. And don't forget, don't forget that we need to be continually tightening that belt. It's like that horse we were thinking of just now. You'll see the riders going along and they'll shift their legs back and they'll get down and they'll tighten the girth up again to make sure the saddle stays. We need to be constantly tightening our belts. Constantly reminding ourselves of the truth of the Word of God. A truthful life. is never an accident. It has to be worked at. It has to be continually taken care of. So, wherefore, Paul says, take on you the whole armour. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth. And then he says, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, at the end of verse 14. Now a breastplate was a metal plate that covered the front of the body to protect the vital organs beneath, particularly from the thrust of the short sword used in close hand-to-hand combat by soldiers of that particular time. Here it was then, this breastplate, to protect the vital organs. It's thought that, too, it could have the meaning of chain mail. And we know what a protection that can be as it fits over you to, again, repel the swords and the knives and all the rest of it and the bullets. Paul says that this righteousness will give the believer protection to the vital organs, the vital organs of our spiritual lives. This is what Paul is thinking of here. We can make the point that this is not our own righteousness. Scripture is quite clear that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. But Paul is saying here, the righteousness of God, imputed to every truly born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, has this righteousness imputed to them when they become a believer. Filthy rags offer no protection whatsoever. And all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, Paul tells us in Romans 3 verse 23. and our filthy rags are just not going to protect us. Believers, and what an encouragement it is to learn this in this little passage here, believers are clothed by God in His righteousness through putting our God-given faith in Christ and his atoning sacrifice. What a tremendous thought that is, isn't it? We don't have to endeavor to be righteous ourselves, if you like, and I say that carefully. In the first instance, we don't. As soon as we become children of God, adopted into His family, He places upon us, as it were, a breastplate. He places upon us, as it were, a coat of chain mail. He places upon us that righteousness that was the righteousness of Christ, when he made that atoning sacrifice on the cross at Clauseley. Clothed in his Son, and I say it carefully, righteousness, righteousness. We never could be more righteous than that, surely could we, than when we are clothed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. But as with truth, God's righteousness has to be evidenced by the very way we live our lives. Righteous character, we get. We get. It's the free gift of God. Righteous living, a holy, devout, righteous life, is something that we have to work at every day of our lives. That righteousness that we have imputed to us has to be evidenced through the way we live our lives. Calvin said this, he said, such a life is not only secure in God's righteousness, but it's filled with power. And Paul is saying to us, you've got this righteousness, and you've got it for this particular reason, that it might be like a breastplate, that it might protect you, that it might endeavor you to be brave in the battle against the evil one. So as we close verse 12, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. We ask ourselves the questions. Have we allowed God to cinch the belt of truth on us? Recently? Today? Are we allowing that truth of God to so fill our lives that then, then, it will flow out from those lives? Are we conscious of the fact that God has placed on us this breastplate of righteousness? that we, with the Holy Spirit living within us, have the ability, have the necessary armour on to repel the evil one and to live lives that are righteous? Have we put on the whole armour of God? And are we standing? Are we really living our lives victoriously? Not only in our own strength, not in our own strength rather, but in the total and utter dependence upon God and the armour that He gives us. In olden times, when a knight was going into battle, he would spend the night before going into battle in a church or a chapel, and he would go into that church and chapel alone, and he would take his armour with him. and he would lay it out in front of him, in front of the altar, and then he'd spend the whole night there in prayer to God, seeking God's will for him, seeking God's aid in the battle that lay before him, offering up, it is thought, his whole soul to God. This is what God wants us to do. He wants us to take that belt. He wants us to take that breastplate. He wants us to live in the good of it. God wants us to put on that whole armor of God. The belt and breastplate, the truth and the righteousness. You know, we have the opportunity to be instruments of wonderful spiritual aggression. in the fight against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places. It's a glorious possibility if we put this armour on. Next time we'll look at the next two items in the list, in the will of God. 720. 720. who is on the Lord's side, who will serve the King, who will be His helper other lives to bring, who will leave the world's side, who will face the foe, who is on the Lord's side, who for Him will go. 720.